Smith happy with point

Dundee United boss Alex Smith admitted that he was happy to take a point from the 1-1 draw with Motherwell, especially after his men produced one of their worst ever displays under him in the first 45 minutes.

United conceded a third minute goal when Stephen Pearson was on hand to fire Motherwell ahead after some persistent play from James McFadden.

The home side equalised in the second period, but Smith recognised they were fortunate to go in only one goal behind at half-time.

Smith said: “Motherwell played very well in the first half and they deserved lots of credit.

“That doesn’t take away from the fact that we were very poor and you have to say that we were lucky to get in at half-time only one down.

“If they had taken their chances and maybe made it 2-0, then we would have had a hard task to come back.”

Smith dropped influential playmaker Charlie Miller from his starting line-up, but was forced to introduce him at half-time in an attempt to inject some creativity into his team’s play.

The half-time change, according to Smith, was a major factor behind his side’s resurgence in the second period.

“We changed it at half-time and brought Charlie on to get some more creativity into our play,” said Smith.

“We left him out at the start because I wanted more energy in the midfield, but everyone knows how talented he is and we needed him in the second half.

“He only trained for two days last week, but we need more work from him.”

Motherwell manager Terry Butcher admitted he was happy to settle for a point before making the trip to Tannadice but, after a superb first half showing from his players, felt they might have taken more from the game.

Butcher said: “We played very well in the first half, I was delighted with the players at half-time.

“We should have been more than one goal up, and if we had managed to get more goals than it would have been hard for United to come back at us.

“Before the match I would have been happy with a point so I can’t complain.”